St. Charles County woman accused of letting people use house as ‘drug den’

ST. CHARLES COUNTY, Mo. - A St. Charles County woman is accused of letting people, including her own teenage daughter, use her house as a drug den for marijuana, meth, and heroin use.

Fox 2/KPLR 11 obtained court documents that detail a host of alleged problems in the woman’s home, including drug overdoses and sexual assault.

Jessica Burge, 41, remained in the St Charles County Jail Thursday after being charged with maintaining a public nuisance and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Authorities raided her home on Wakefield Drive near the St. Peters-St. Charles County line Tuesday. County police had responded there 38 times since January 2017, a court document said.

Burge admitted to letting people come to her home to use everything from marijuana to meth and heroin; even allowing her 18-year-old daughter and her daughter’s friends to use the master bedroom to do heroin because it’s larger and more comfortable for them, authorities said.

Burge’s daughter denied that, saying her mother has repeatedly tried to put her into drug treatment.

Most of those police calls stemmed from false accusations by Burge’s ex-husband, according to Burge’s daughter. Her mother was certainly not any kind of drug dealer or drug kingpin, the daughter said.

She’s not charged with any such offenses.

“She knew full well what was going in there,” said St. Charles County Prosecutor Tim Lohmar. “Here was drug distribution going on in and out of the house; rampant drug use; all sorts of drug-related activity and she knew exactly what was going on…it’s a quiet neighborhood. It’s a typical suburban neighborhood. The neighborhood was fed up with this nonsense. That’s why we did something about it.”

More charges against multiple defendants were likely, Lohmar said.

Burge faces up to four years in prison if convicted. Her bond was set at $15,000 cash-only.

The home has since been referred to the St. Charles County Building and Code Enforcement Division for potential action as a nuisance property.